The Great Escape
by gabbsxlove
Summary: Rosalina and Ross have been found in Nazi Germany. They struggle to survive out in the open.


It is December of 1941 in Berlin, Germany. I, Rosalina, am a Jew. Hitler took over Germany when I was nine. My brother, Ross, was just born. He's the only family I have left because just months after Hitler took over Germany, my parents were killed during Kristallnacht. I somehow managed to escape while keeping my brother safe. These willing Germans took Ross and I into their home, promising to keep us safe for as long as they can. I've been in hiding for eight years with these Germans. Hitler claims that Berlin is Jew free, but little to his knowledge Ross and I are the only Jews left in Berlin. Everything was peaceful, for the most part, until Christmas day. Christmas day was a nightmare for everyone. The gestapo burst into the flat where Ross and I had been hiding. They had gotten word that the lovely couple hiding us was truly hiding us. Ross started to cry as soon as we heard the gestapo break in. I grip him tight, tighter than I ever have before. I told him that everything would be okay. He gave me a look of disappointment in an instant, like he knew I was wrong. Ross was an intelligent eight year old; smarter than I could ever be, even though he never had proper schooling. He was right about everything he said, but that look he gave me, I knew he was wrong. I knew everything was going to be okay. Ross had looked away as fast as he looked at me.

Boom! The door of the closet where Ross and I were hiding had been busted down. These two tall, exquisitely handsome men, both with blonde hair and blue eyes, reached down toward Ross. I grip him as tight as I could, but it wasn't tight enough. They took him. They took my Ross. One of them yelled at me saying to hurry up and come along or they would shoot me. As Ross was being carried away, and I was walking down the stairs, my hands now in chains, I saw more gestapo crowding the now dead couple that was protecting me and Ross. Ross starts to cry even harder. I try to get to him and hold him, but when I try I get a gun shoved against my head. We are eventually led out of the house and onto a hay wagon, moved by six horses, with four gestapo, two on each side of Ross and I. I fall asleep within just minutes of being captured.

I was awakened by a gunshot. I sit up looking for Ross, even though I can hardly see a thing. When I can see clearly, I see no sign of Ross. I break out in tears. Not knowing where Ross is is tearing me apart. This was the first time he has left my side since Kristallnacht. I thought he was dead. Who knows? He could really be dead. More tears swelled up in my eyes. I couldn't hold them back. When one of the gestapo noticed that I was crying, he cracked me with the whip which was used for the horses. Naturally, I would cry even more, but on the crack of the whip, I knew that I had a mission; a mission to save Ross. So, I stopped my tears, and fought against the gestapo with all my strength, even though I was in chains.

When I was fighting back, I could hear Ross saying that I could do this. That I could beat the gestapo. I don't know if Ross was dead, but if I thought about it, it made me hit even harder. I snap back to the gestapo and notice how they react. They reer back at me, but they don't hit or kick me, instead they bring out their guns and shoot me in both legs, then they leave me alone to die. I lie there writhing in pain for a moment. My life flashes before my eyes. I thought I was going to die. I look around for my last moments of life only to see nothing except a light. A singular light. Then, I see nothing at all.

I wake with a migraine. I smell something strange. Then it hits me. I'm in a hospital. I try to sit up, but everything hurts. I wonder why the hospital is treating a Jew, unless they don't know that I'm a Jew. I never carried around a tag that said I was a Jew because all Jew's went to concentration camps, whether or not they had the Star of David to carry around with them. I snap back to reality and I see a nurse by my wood-like bed. After five minutes, she realizes that I'm awake and starts asking me a bunch of questions. I refuse to answer them, because I'm a Jew and answering the questions would give it away. When the nurse is done asking me questions that I won't answer, she brings in the gestapo. I remember him from the ride. He was the one that had shot me in the legs, which I now realized are wrapped up in white cloth with my blood seeping through. He gives me a grimacing look. I try to kick him, but my legs only twitch as the pain spreads.

The gestapo sits down on my bed. He tells the nurse to leave, and she had obeyed. He resembles my father quite well. Did my father live? There is no possible way that he could've lived. I saw him lie on the floor of our burned flat that evening. Maybe that wasn't a person. Maybe it was the lamp that had been inherited by my mother from her grandmother. The man spoke to me. He sounded like my father as well. All of a sudden he says one thing my dad used to tell me all the time. He said it in the language only me and my father knew because we had made it up. He said that family will stick together no matter how bad things get. At that moment, I knew it was him. I started crying tears of joy. Then I started to wonder how he found me. Did he find Ross too? He couldn't have. He doesn't know what Ross looks like.

The nurse comes back. My father then stands up and leaves, but before he walks out he smiles at me. The nurse starts to ask the same questions as before. I decide to answer them this time. She calls in a different gestapo after she is done asking me questions. The gestapo grabs me and swings me around off of my bed. I wince in pain, but he doesn't seem to notice or care. I'm forced to walk even with severely injured legs. After a couple minutes of walking, I crumble to the ground. The gestapo then picks me up and carries me. He purposely hits my head on the corners of each turn. I go to hit him only to realize that my hands are still in chains. I can hit him, but not with as much force as I could without the chains.

The gestapo man sits me down on a stack of hay; at least I thinks it's hay. I flip around to see Ross. I gleam with joy. I move closer towards him. I realize that it's his stone cold, dead body. I scream bloody murder. No one is around to hear me. I shake Ross as hard as I can. I scream at him to wake up, but he doesn't. I start sobbing. Ross was the only one that stuck by my side when no one else would. I can't believe he's gone. I've never been without him, and he's never been without me. I never got to say goodbye, but I can't focus on that forever. I need to focus on escaping Hitler's wrath. Ross being dead makes my will to live even stronger.

I sit up from the hay, and I realize that we're moving. I look over to see if Ross's body was still there, but it wasn't. I don't know where it was. The gestapo must have disposed of it while I was staring off into space.

I lift up my arms. I was taken by surprise when I saw they didn't have chains on them. My legs are still in pain, but not as much as before. I make the decision to jump off the vehicle. I heard something crack the moment I hit the ground. I look down at my legs only to see more blood. The adrenaline wears off, and I feel much more pain than before. I want to scream, but I keep it silent just in case people can hear me. I close my eyes for what I thought was a short moment, but it turned out that I had been lying on the ground for days.

I smell something foul. I then realize that I am surrounded by dead bodies, one of them being Ross's. I dug a hole just big enough to fit Ross's body. I pick him up and put him in the hole with all my upper strength since I cannot use my legs. Hold a proper Jewish funeral. I say my goodbyes and move on.

I crawl to what looks like a small town. I see a sign that says "Welcome to Luxemburg." I don't believe I crawled that far. The gestapo must have driven far. A strange person walks up to me and picks me up. I struggle to fight against it, but as I do blackness swarms me. Everything goes dark. I eventually wake up. I notice that I am back in a hospital. Only two things are different about this hospital: no one is a Nazi (I think) and I'm tied down to a table. I see someone walk in. As fast as they walk in, I slip into unconsciousness. I woke up, this time, in someone's house. How did I get here? How long have I been here?

I hear something shuffling around, but I see nothing. I feel something breathing on me, yet I see nothing. I get scared, and curl up in a ball. I start crying. A few minutes have passed when I feel a gentle hand on my shoulder shaking me. They talk to me in a language I don't understand. I ask in the only language I know, which is German, if they speak German. They, which looks like a she, eventually speaks in German. She tells her name, Jackson. She asks me all sorts of questions like where I'm from, do I have any family, am I a Jew. I answer all correctly, but one. I tell Jackson that I am a nor a Nazi or a Jew. I tell her that I am on my way to the United States. She tells me the same thing.

After a few days of staying with Jackson, she reveals to me that she is actually an american spy stationed in Luxemburg along with many others. I tell her my real identity also. She tells me that she will plan an escape route to get me out of Europe and to the USA, the Land of Dreams. After a few weeks of careful planning with her colleagues, we decide to set our plan in motion. They intend to steal a gestapo vehicle, lay me in the back since I am still injured, and get me to the English Channel. From there, I will get on a boat with an American spy and he will take me to America. They say when I get there, I will be free to do whatever I please. Of course I trust them, who else can I trust?

Jackson is the only American spy to go with me to make sure that I live. We get through the first two stages perfectly fine, but the third stage-getting me to the English Channel-is extremely difficult. It takes days of driving. At last we reach the English Channel. I hobble to the boat that I'm told to go to. We begin our journey to America. I yelp with joy. I eventually fall asleep after a day or so. The person driving the boat, I think his name is Riley, wakes me and says that I was asleep for days. I don't believe him. Anyway, I look around to see a small strip of land. We can't be here already! I'm going to have so much fun the moment I step off this boat!

I see the Statue of Liberty. I scream with joy. I beg Riley to row faster, and he does! We reach land. I hop off the boat gleaming with joy. This is the happiest I've ever been. I look around to see many people. I fix my eyes on one person in particular. I soon realize that it's my father! I start to run towards him, but Riley pulls me back and tells me the plan about rescuing my father. When Riley is done telling me the plan, he lets me go to my father. My father realizes who I am and picks me up and hugs me. He asks me where Ross is, and I tell him what I know about that situation. After we both get done crying about Ross, we walk off into the distance. I turn back one final time to thank Riley, but he was already gone. This is the best life that I could've asked for.


End file.
